The new New StatesmanWith big black coverlines, a larger format and a less bitty feel to the layout, the new New Statesman emerges this week with a bid to recapture the affections of the thinking liberal left.

The look is transatlantic, as Prospect magazine might feel if it was edited by a Howard Dean supporter from Boston or Stanford.

Gone is the crude street student protest tone which ran through the old Staggers, and which readers either loved or (more often) hated, depending on how much they despised Tony Blair.

The new magazine clearly wants to be seen as clever, rather than boastful and bolshie, which can only be a good thing.

The redesign is an admission that the old magazine had become very tedious, banging on week after week about themes of global importance -- above all Iraq in all its incarnations -- without any attempt at subtlety or curiosity.

The new magazine puts David Cameron on the cover. It is a sign of Britain's head-spinning politics that the rival Spectator leads with Jack Straw on the Labour leadership while the New Statesman has Mr Cameron on the Tories.

Inside the new look is fresh enough to draw lost readers back for a second look - but whether they will return more than once is an open question.

The new page size feels more generous, but the print is hard to read. Old favourites, such as Kevin Maguire's reliably troublesome Westminster Diary are almost impossible to get through in their new look - a bewildering mix of dots, bold type and compressed text. The diary is a mess and needs an immediate rethink.

The bigger problem is that beneath its new preppy clothes the magazine isn't really all that different. There has been no cultural change. The cover has - guess what? - a story about American military power, plus George Galloway on Che Guevara.

One of the promised new columnists, Julian Clary, has written for the magazine already. The others -- such as Rageh Omaar and Clive Stafford Smith -- are impressive people in their fields, but will slip easily into the old magazine's anti-American routines.

Not much sign of fresh thinking here. For those readers who want a weekly dose of something more stimulating than John Pilger, the magazine may prove a bit of a let-down.

The disconnection with the Labour party continues: no sign in the first issue that the magazine is engaging with the coming Brown government, or the Democrats' revival in the US.

That may change: this is, after all, only the first issue. There are many improvements: better books coverage and a good use of pictures included.

The relaunch is certainly a real improvement. But as this week's interviewee, Mr Cameron, knows full well, changing looks is only a start. It is changing the culture that matters - and that, so far, has not happened.